Ethics in the 21st Century - Research Paper Example

Ethics in the 21st Century: An Overview Introduction Ethics, also referred to as moral philosophy, is the discipline defining what is morally right and wrong or good and bad. Johnson defines ethics as a set of theories “that provide general rules or principles to be used in making moral decisions and, unlike ordinary institutions, provides a justification for those rules” (as cited in Kizza, 2010, p.33). Ethics addresses various conflicting situations in different areas including the general society, science and technology, development, poverty, environment, healthcare, business and finance. Although ethics is basically considered as a branch of philosophy, it is a much broader concept and it directly or indirectly relates to many other areas of study including economics, biology, anthropology, politics, history, theology, and sociology. However, ethics is entirely different from those disciplines mainly because ethics does not constitute a matter of factual knowledge as sciences and other areas of study do. Relative to the last century, significance of ethics has considerably increased in the 21st century. Obviously, globalization has led to the formation of a deregulated world. Hence, the 21st century has formed its own new ethical parameters on which the actions of individuals and organizations can be judged right or wrong. This paper will give an overview of ethics in the 21st century. Ethics in a Multicultural Global World The process of globalization enhanced cross border transportation and cross border movement of people, capital, ideas, and cultures. The increased globalization pressures created high level cultural diversity or cultural complexity around the globe. To illustrate, in the words of McCauley (2012), regional or national cultural variances result in drastic changes in cultural attitudes that make it difficult for a country’s or region’s people to understand right or wrong in another country or region. Although the creation of a global economy is in active discussion, currently there are no global state or global governance principles. As Frost (n. d.) points out, since the emergence of globalisation, a myriad of transnational interactions have been taking place and this situation has led to the formation of different kinds of international organizations such as multinational corporations, international sporting bodies, international scientific organizations, and churches. These international organizations face a sequence of ethical challenges as customs, norms, and practices vary from country to country or sometimes from region to region. Hence, ethical concerns over transnational rules are increasing in the 21st century in order to establish common ethical standards for international organization around the world. Setting up of common regulatory practices has been already undertaken by many international bodies including UN, IMF, and NATO. Ethics in Science and Technology Scientific developments and technological innovations have been used to transform traditional hand and human based techniques into modern technology over the last century. With the rapid development of science and technology, humanity is facing a series of ethical concerns including use of weapons and power plants, environmental pollution, health complications, loss of biodiversity, work overload, lack of privacy, and finally global transformations of sky, ocean, and the earth. Despite ongoing efforts to address those challenges, developments in sciences and technology continue to raise numerous ethical issues. Today, people are highly concerned about their health and living environment due to the increased awareness of health safety and environmental sustainability. Hence, better human health and long term environmental sustainability have become the primary concerns of ethics in the 21st century. It is clear that huge organizations, specifically multinational corporations, give increased focus to environmental safety while performing their business activities. Many of those organizations prepare annual sustainability reports to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility and thereby convince their stakeholders that they give primary importance to the business’ ethical aspects. In this century, individuals, groups, or institutions depending on innovations in science and technology have an ethical obligation to make certain that those technological applications do not threaten the welfare of the humanity. Admittedly, entrepreneurs today have ethical responsibility to use science and technology for the wellbeing of the general public. Ethics in Development and Environment Today, nations give specific focus to ethical aspects while developing strategies to enhance their economic development. In the Edelman Trust Barometer Poll 2011 (as cited in Kliksberg, n. d.), most of the participants opined that companies should create value for their shareholders even though value creation practices may reduce the value of the shares. The WorldCom accounting fraud can be a case of ethics in development. The company officials concealed the company’s poor financial status using various accounting techniques in order to retain the interests of the stakeholders in the firm tactfully. Even though the company management’s intention was good, this unethical practice ended up in the collapse of the WorldCom. The 2008-09 global financial crisis amplified the need of ensuring ethics in economic development. In the 21st century, environmentalists are striving to promote environmental ethics in different areas of life. They strongly claim that humans have ethical obligation to pass this earth and environment on to the next generation without any damage. In addition, natural ecosystems are necessary for the survival of many species of vulnerable aquatic and terrestrial life, because they cannot bear external interferences. In this regard, today environmentalists and other interest groups give particular attention to ethical concerns while discussing environment related issues. Ethics in Healthcare The healthcare ethics faces a series of challenges in the 21st century. Although most of the modern reproductive technologies are effective to fight infertility, they raise many ethical challenges to the healthcare sector. Roman Catholic Church and other conservative groups strongly protest any type of intervention in natural procreation by referring to Natural Law ethics. In addition, procreation using donor sperms is a hot topic for ethical debate in the 21st century as this reproductive technique is likely to have many negative effects on the child in the future. Similarly, increased prevalence of abortion in the 21st century paved way for a series of ethical debates in international conferences. Many social workers and humanity activists hold the view that abortion curtails the fetus’ right to live (Abortion: BBC). In addition, healthcare professionals and other social groups strongly claim that abortion would increase the rate of teenage pregnancy, premarital sex and sexual promiscuity, which are potential ethical challenges to the society. Mounting drug prices constitute another major ethical issue in the healthcare sector because this situation restricts people’s access to better healthcare facilities. Despite the recent healthcare reform, the drugs prices in the US are still on the rise. Finally, clinical or medical error is another bone of contention in the 21st century. Every patient has the fundamental right to obtain safe treatment and this right is hurt by medical errors. Sometimes, medical errors impose huge financial burden on patients or even threaten the patient’s life. Ethics in Business As discussed earlier, globalization enhanced cross border flow of labors and cultures and this situation led to the formation of culturally diverse workplace environments. Cultural diversity causes many ethical issues in the modern workplace, and the situation is often worsened by unethical leadership strategies. Evidences indicate that top executives often discriminate foreign workers on the ground of nationality, race, religion, or culture. Undoubtedly, this practice is against worksite ethics because every employee has the right to be treated on an equal footing in an organizational environment. Hence, the modern management theories give particular emphasis to workplace ethics. The recent corporate scandals including Enron and WorldCom reflect that business managers (especially public sector) are not much vigilant in handling the money of public. Many reports indicate that public sector business managers unfairly use public money to gain personal financial benefits. In order to address these issues, today top executives give particular attention to corporate governance principles. Management experts believe that well developed corporate governance principles can promote business ethics to a great extent. In the modern era, business people tend to give less consideration to ethical concerns as they focus only on profitability. Arguably, ethics in business seems declining in the 21st century. Ethics in Finance The recent global financial crisis followed the burst of an asset price bubble and the issue caused severe market downturns throughout the 2008-09 periods. However, some emerging economies like India could successfully survive the crisis only because of their strong banking system. Some recent studies point that inefficiencies and unethical practices in the banking sector were the major causes why the recent recession affected the US more severely. In order to address these pitfalls, industrially developed economies including US strive to develop more stringent financial policies today. Hence, ethics in financial transactions became a priority for global economies since the recent recession. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that the concept of ethics has been redefined since beginning of the 21st century. Unlike the past, ethical issues in the healthcare industry have notably increased. Ethical considerations became vital in science and technology in this century since many of the applications have severe impacts on human health or/and environmental sustainability. Today top managements give specific attention to corporate governance in order to demonstrate their ethical responsibility in value creation for the shareholders. Finally, global economies have been giving special consideration to ethical aspects in finance since the recent global recession. References Abortion. Ethics Guide. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/ Frost, M. (n. d.). Ethics and Global Governance. In ‘values and ethics for the 21st century’. BBVA. Retrieved from http://www.bbvaopenmind.com/static/4libro/valores_y_etica_ing.pdf Kizza. J. M. (2010). Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age. NY: Springer Kliksberg, B. (n. d.). Re-examining the relationship between ethics and the economy. In ‘values and ethics for the 21st century’. BBVA. Retrieved from http://www.bbvaopenmind.com/static/4libro/valores_y_etica_ing.pdf McCauley, D. (2012). The Role of Ethics in the 21st Century Joint Force. Small Walls Journal. August 13. 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